


I'll Paint You A Clear Blue Sky

by Fernweh



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Short & Sweet, doodling, its not gonna be smut, sleepy dex, soft nurseydex is best nurseydex, using poems to confess your feelings, why does the summery sound like its gonna be smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 20:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10315901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fernweh/pseuds/Fernweh
Summary: Dex is having trouble falling asleep. Nursey just wants to help.“If I can help you somehow I’m here for you.” Nursey was lightly stroking Dex’s leg, watching small goosebumps rising.Dex was quiet for a while before he suddenly shifted, leaning down and rummaging through his backpack that was sitting next to the couch. Finally he pulled out a pen.“Actually, there is something you can do,” Dex said, his voice confident, but Nursey could see that behind the facade Dex was hesitant, a small blush spreading across his face. He shoved the pen into Nursey’s hand.“Doodle on my arm”, Dex commanded. Nursey was stunned. “Please?”, Dex added softly.





	

The sun was already setting as Nursey entered the Haus.

Pushing the door behind him closed with his hips, he yelled a "Hello?" into the hall to see if anyone else was there. There was a soft grunt coming out of the living room.

Nursey made his way his way into the kitchen to grab himself a drink before wandering over to the living room.

There was a Dex-shaped lump lying on the couch, textbook and marker in his hands, three empty redbull cans scattered across the floor.  
“I don’t think that much redbull is healthy for you”, Nursey teased, softly lifting Dex’s legs up, sitting down in their spot, and putting them back down in his lap.  
Dex looked up from his textbook, eyes red rimmed, dark circles underneath. “Yeah well, I gotta stay concentrated somehow.”  
“How about you get some sleep and continue learning in the morning instead?” Nursey answered.  
Dex grunted but didn’t say anything else, instead going back into his textbook.  
He had seen Dex like this before, but that was always in the finals week. Nursey knew Dex’s didn’t have any exams coming up for at least a month. 

“Okay, what’s wrong?”  
“Nothings wrong!” Nursey didn’t even have to look at Dex to know he was lying. He knew Dex’s lying voice by now, had heard it often enough when Dex said "no I'm not stressed" or "I've got this under controll" or "I've only had 2 coffees today don't worry".  
“Poindexter. You know you can tell me anything, right?”, he said, giving one of Dex’s legs which were still sitting in his lap a gentle squeeze.  
“It’s nothing really,” Dex said, but put his textbook and markers down, looking at Nursey with calculating eyes

“I just have trouble falling asleep at the moment. It's been a few days since I had more than a couple of hours of sleep."  
Now that Nursey thought about it, Dex had been walking around the campus like a zombie for the last two or so days. But it hadn’t seem this bad. He had just assumed Dex had fallen into one of his Netflix binges.

“So you drank three cans of energy drink?”, Nursey asked in a doubtful voice. He gave Dex’s leg, which he just noticed he was still holding on to, another squeeze to let Dex know he wasn’t trying to start a fight. Not today. Not when Dex looked as jaded as he did now.  
“My brain keeps drifting to all these thoughts lately, and I thought maybe if I just keep myself busy, I can just overwork myself to the point where I can just fall asleep without having to listen to it. You know?”

Yes, Nursey did know. He had spent more than enough nights tossing and turning, his brains feeding him thoughts of what ifs and worst case scenarios. Nursey also knew how exhausted Dex had to be to admit this to Nursey. Sure they were friends now. But they weren’t that close yet. (Not that Nursey had a plan or something, in which he would subtly push this friendship onto Dex without him even noticing, and suddenly they would be best friends, spending every minute together, listening to songs on his ipod together, sharing his headphones, and then Here Without You by 3 Doors Down would come on, and Dex would take his hand, look deep into his eyes and.... Nursey had never really given it much thought.)

“If I can help you somehow I’m here for you.” Nursey was lightly stroking Dex’s leg, watching small goosebumps rising.  
Dex was quiet for a while before he suddenly shifted, leaning down and rummaging through his backpack that was sitting next to the couch. Finally he pulled out a pen.

“Actually, there is something you can do,” Dex said, his voice confident, but Nursey could see that behind the facade Dex was hesitant, a small blush spreading across his face. He shoved the pen into Nursey’s hand and turned himself around, so that instead of his legs his upper body was now lying on Nursey’s lap. His head was being held up by the armrest of the couch.  
“Doodle on my arm”, Dex commanded. Nursey was stunned. “Please?”, Dex added softly.  
“Sure,” Nursey answered, looking down on this boy in his lap, overwhelmed, “I’m not very good at doodling though.”  
“Doesn’t matter”, Dex answered, his eyes wandering over Nursey’s face, “doesn’t have to look pretty. Just do what you feel like.”

Doing what he felt like was kind of out of question, since Dex surely didn’t want Nursey’s lips on his skin, so he did the next best thing.  
The pen was shaking in his hand and Nursey prayed Dex wouldn’t notice. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down he drew the first line. It was wobbly and uneven, and he had to redraw some lines, making them big and ugly next to lines that were weak and barely visible. But he heard Dex’s sighing softly, his breath going slow.

“My siblings always drew on me,” Dex explained in a hushed voice, “at first I hated it. But now it just feels like being home.”  
Nursey murmured in agreement, even though he had never had anyone draw on him before. His only sister was much older than him, so there had never been a time for these silly things. At least not when he could remember.  
Still he could picture it in his head. Dex surrounded by his little siblings, all of them drawing funny shapes, faces and animals onto his skin. Dex fighting them off at first, but then giving up and accepting his fate. It was an image that made Nursey smile. Nursey hadn't met Dex's family yet, but he had seen plenty of pictures and he knew Dex loved them to the moon and back. 

“Do you miss your family?” Nursey asked.  
“A lot.”, Dex admitted, “I haven’t seen them in 3 month now. Mom told me Sabrina was having a fever.”  
Sabrina was the youngest one, just 5 months old. Dex had shown him a picture the day she was delivered. He had been so proud, his face glowing, eyes sparkling. It was the same day Nursey had finally admitted his stupid crush on Dex to himself.

“The doctor says she will be alright and the temperature has been going down since yesterday. But still I can’t sleep. I just keep thinking..”  
Nursey looked up from his work on Dex’s arm. Dex’s eyes were open, his brows furrowed. Nursey took Dex’s hand in his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Immediately Dex’s face went slack and his eyes closed. He was beautiful, Nursey noticed not for the first time. The freckles that were scattered across his face. His soft eyelashes casting a shadow across his cheeks. Soft strands of red hair poking out in all directions. Nursey couldn’t believe a boy this beautiful could even exist.

He didn’t know how long they had been sitting on the couch like that, him softly drawing on Dex's skin, turning his arm in different directions to get the right angle, hoping Dex was too tired to notice Nursey's sweaty palms. By the time Nursey heard the front door opening, hardly any space was left on Dex’s arm.  
Chowder entered the room, his eyes growing into the size of golf balls when he noticed Dex basically sleeping on top of Nursey.  
“How was you’re date with Farmer?”, Nursey asked in a low voice before Chowder could say anything. Not that the question was necessary, his best friend was carrying a big hickey on his neck that definitely hadn’t been there in the morning.  
“Is he asleep?”, Chowder asked instead, ignoring Nursey’s question.  
“I think so”, Nursey whispered back, careful not to wake Dex.  
“Good, I’ve been worried you know. Though he should probably sleep in a real bed, or he’ll have real bad pain in the morning. Also you probably don’t want to sit on that couch all night. Bitty would probably freak out if you did. You know, the germs and what-not that’s on that thing.”  
Nursey nodded, “You’re right, I’ll take him to his dorm. Night Chowder.”  
He could see the questions in Chowder's eyes, if something had finally happened between them, how they had ended up on top of each other, why nursey was doodling on Dex' skin. But like the best friend he was, he took the hint and made his way upstairs to his room, leaving Nursey and Dex alone.

Softly, and just to wake him up, Nursey stroked along side Dex’s jaw his thumb brushing against his cheek. Dex’s eyes fluttered open, his lips forming a soft smile. Nursey pulled away his hand, trying to be casual about it, as if caressing your bro's face when he was asleep was a normal totally platonic thing to do.   
“Hey there sleepy head,” Nursey muttered, “Let’s get you home and into a real bed.”  
“You can take me to bed whenever you like.” Dex answered, clearly still more asleep than awake.  
Nursey was speechless, his heart beating wildly.  
“Did I just.. say that outloud?”, Dex asked, suddenly wide awake after noticing Nursey’s shocked facial expression.  
“Maybe we should take a walk”, Nursey suggested. The fresh air would do them both good. Clearly Nursey was just as dazed as Dex was. He had probably just imagined Dex saying that. There was no way. And even if he had said that, Dex probably hadn’t meant to say it to him out of all the people. Who knows who he had been dreaming about.

Calm down Nurse, he told himself, just be chill.

 

The air was cold in a pleasant way. Nursey could hear the distant yelling of  drunk college students. Normally he would find that annoying, but tonight, with Dex by his side, it was weirdly romantic.  
“So what did you draw?” Dex asked.  
“Huh?”  
“On my arm? What did you draw?” He looked up at Nursey, curiosity shining bright in his eyes.  
“Why don’t you take a look, idiot, it’s your arm.”  
“Well, idiot, it’s your drawings, i don’t know if i’m allowed to look. You’re usually so secretive when it comes to your notebooks.”  
Nursey rolled his eyes, but ended up with a fond smile on his face.  
“I wouldn't have drawn anything secret on your arm, that would have been just stupid. Besides my notebooks are different. All my poetry is in there. You reading them would be like reading my diary.”  
Dex grinned, “What? I'm not allowed to read your diary? Are you hiding secrets from me?”

Only that I’m in love with you.

“Shut up, asshat”, Nursey said instead.  
Dex's laugh filled the quiet night.  
Despite the coldness of the night, Dex took of his jacket to look at Nursey’s work.  
There were lots of flourished lines and abstract shaped. Lines connecting his freckles as if they were constellation of stars. And between it all were words written. Dex turned his head and bend his arm in different directions in an attempt to read them.

“What did you write?”

  
_“Your name is_  
 _the strongest_  
 _positive and negative_  
 _connotation in any language._  
 _It lights me up or_  
 _leaves me aching for days.”_ Nursey quoted, looking up into the clear night sky. He could feel Dex’s stare burn into the side of his face.

“I thought your poems were secret.”  
“Well, it's not my poem. It’s by Rupi Kaur.”  
“Oh, I guess.. I just assumed... ” Dex uttered. Nursey turned to study Dex’s face. If he wasn’t imagining it he had just heard disappointment in his voice. Could that be possible? Dex face was blank. A little too blank.

“It’s still true to how I feel,” Nursey breathed out. His hands were fidgeting, nervousto have interpreted this all wrong.  
“What do you mean?”, Dex asked, the same nervousness that Nursey felt running through his voice.  
Nursey stopped walking and looked at Dex.  
“I mean how I feel about you."  
Dex also stopped walking, turning around to face Nursey. Slowly he stepped closer, till their noses were nearly touching.  
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he whispered, and ducked his head forward.  
When their lips touched Nursey gave out a soft sigh, wrapping his arms around Dex’s back, pulling him even more in. Dex's lips were smooth and warm. He could feel one of Dex's hands on the back of his neck, the other one holding onto his arm. Nursey turned his head and slowly deepened the kiss. He could feel Dex smiling into the kiss his teeth scraping against his lips.   
When they had to stop the kiss to catch their breath Nursey couldn’t stop the huge grin that was spreading on his face. Dex pressed his forehead against Nurseys.

“You know, I fall asleep much easier if I’m being cuddled,” he whispered, “so if you wanna help me again, and are interested in maybe testing out my bed for a night, you could come join me in my room tonight.”  
Nursey suppressed the smile on his face, pretending to think about the offer, “only under one condition.”  
“And what’s that?”  
“I get to kiss you again tomorrow.” Dex laughed swooping in again to press another short kiss onto Nursey's lips.  
“You can kiss me whenever.”  
"Well then, Mister Poindexter, it's a deal."


End file.
